Poor response

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Eggey69

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Let me start by saying I worked years as a process/manufacturing engineer that worked very closely with customers. When a customer called with an issue there was IMMEDIATE response, usually followed by a meeting and possibly flying out to a location to address the problem. I purchased my Renegade about 11 months ago. It's one of the best sounding and without a doubt the most room-filling amp I've ever owned.

Now to the bad part. About a month or so after receiving the amp it started making noises and would cut out. I called the Egnater service number FIVE OR SO DAYS IN A ROW without ever having anyone answer my call. I finally got an answer and got instructions to try to troubleshoot the amp myself which did not resolve the issue. I was sent 5 replacement preamp tubes, one of ONE OF WHICH WAS BURNT OUT when I received. After several emails I received authorization to take to a repair center a couple hours away where the issue was determined to be one of the 6L6's which was replaced under warranty. I've had the reverb issue since I purchased it and read threads about keeping the channel volumes less that 50% which works but is not really a good answer. I submitted a form to Egnater service to ask about the reverb and even though it states they would reply within 24 to 48 hours I got NO RESPONSE. I called the general number and complained and a few days later I got an email saying it was probably a funky preamp tube that drives the effect loop. I emailed Bruce with a link I found on this forum and received NO RESPONSE. I then replied to a thread and Ian said to post/email him. I immediately sent an email to Ian the 23rd of last February, NINE DAYS AGO and have yet to get a reply.

I know this is a smaller company but when a customer has a complaint or question it demands immediate response. As I've heard from others the response is typically "replace the tubes". I've owned many tube amps since the mid 60's and have replaced tubes in these (including an older Twin Reverb, Vibro-Champ, Musicman 130, Ampeg VT22, two Pro Juniors, a Peavey Classic 50, a Reverend Hellhound, etc.) with currently produced tubes and don't get the pops, squeals, static that come and go on this amp.

This is the most I've spent on an amp in my 45 years of playing and feel a need I take a solid state amp along just in case it craps itself in the middle of a gig. It's very expensive to carry a set of tubes to every job. The amp is running quietly right now but don't have much confidence.

All I expect is good, honest, timely answers to my questions/concerns without a lot of excuses and feeling that I'm being blown off. I really like the final product but am questioning my decision to use my hard-earned money to purchase this amp. Sorry to all for the long post but I felt the need to get it off my chest.
 
I apologize for the slow response. Me and my dad had a personal family issue happening, and I was a little slow to respond to my e-mails. You should have a response from my dad in your inbox today or tomorrow, as we were discussing this over the weekend. If you are having persisting pops and squeals after the tubes were all replaced under warranty, then that would lead me to believe your amp may need to be serviced. Have you tried known good tubes from these other amps in the Renegade? Again, you should have a response coming today or tomorrow from Bruce, since I reminded him to e-mail you first thing today, but since I saw this thread, I figured I should publicly respond to it. The reasoning with most customers having an answer of "replace tube X", is because the most common problem with a tube amp is that the tubes go bad. We try to put the best tubes we can in the amps, but we've discussed this in other threads before, so I won't beat a dead horse here. Again, my apologies on behalf of everyone, and as I said, I am planning to have an answer for you in the next day or so.
 
First of all, I hope everything is good on the home front. I did get a good email from your father and the issue is being resolved. The day I posted I was pretty upset over the situation and tried not to rant too much. My main point was how incredibly valuable customer service is. Being a fairly young and growing company this has to be at the top of your list. It takes a while to gain consumer confidence but that can go away very quickly. I've read a lot of good feedback on your amps but just a little negative feedback can travel very wide and very fast. FYI, I also received private emails from other RigTalk posters that had similar negative experiences with service/responses. I hope improvements to communication are made and you guys continue in a positive direction. These are great sounding amps!
 
I've had great experiences with Egnater's customer service. Had a tweaker with a bad power tube, once I submitted receipt, replacements were shipped. Recently Ian sent me a tone pot for a module, free of charge(acually sent it twice!). I'm sorry about your problems, but I think they are great, Good luck with the renegade-loved mine(2).
 
I too have had very good luck with Egnater c.s. I've worked a lot of c.s. jobs and sometimes, no matter how hard you try, customers can fall through the cracks. I do get the impression that they care though.
 
I have e-mailed Bruce numerous times with technical questions and most of the time get a response within 24 hours with a very detailed response. On some occasions he has responded in a few hours. He reviews the message boards regularly looking to answer questions from people having problems with his amplifiers. Sorry you had a bad experience but I have never had better customer service with any product, ever.
 
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